Complete wastewater pilot plants built inside 10′, 20′ or 40′ ISO shipping containers. Weatherproof, lockable, dust-sealed, climate-controlled. The right form factor when the trial is long enough or the site is hostile enough to justify a fully-enclosed envelope, and when the global container logistics chain reaches the destination.
The Decision Drivers
A container envelope adds weight, transport rate and lift-equipment requirements compared to a skid-only build. It earns its place when one or more of the following applies: the campaign is long enough to need permanent weather protection, the climate is hostile enough to need active HVAC, the site is unsecured enough to need lockable doors, the trial requires ATEX inerting which is only practical inside a closed volume, or the destination is reachable by a container-logistics chain (port, rail head, container handling site).
Why a Container
Sealed roof and walls keep rain, snow, dust and salt-air out for the full campaign duration. Internal HVAC maintains 15–25 °C bench environment for electronics and sensitive instrumentation.
Reinforced doors with multi-point locking, internal CCTV, tamper-evident chemical store, intrusion alarms to SCADA. Significant on unsecured remote sites where opportunistic damage is a real risk.
Every container ship, port crane, rail wagon and road truck handles 10′, 20′ and 40′ envelopes. The plant lands at any container handling site in the world without bespoke transport equipment.
A sealed container allows nitrogen blanketing of the headspace and fixed gas detection — the only practical way to run an ATEX pilot trial on flammable feed at scale.
Adequate footprint for a bench, sample storage refrigerator, document storage and a PPE locker. The operator visits become productive science sessions, not survival exercises in the rain.
The container shell outlasts any single trial. After the campaign, the internals are stripped or re-configured and the container moves to the next project as a long-life asset.
ISO Standard Sizes
| Envelope | External L × W × H | Internal volume | Typical pilot duty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10′ Standard | 2.99 × 2.44 × 2.59 m | ~ 16 m³ | Single-process pilot (e.g. MBBR alone, RO alone) |
| 20′ Standard | 6.06 × 2.44 × 2.59 m | ~ 33 m³ | Full treatment train (coag-floc + clarifier + filter + disinfection) |
| 20′ High-Cube | 6.06 × 2.44 × 2.90 m | ~ 38 m³ | As 20′ with tall internals (DAF, lamella, vertical biofilter) |
| 40′ Standard | 12.19 × 2.44 × 2.59 m | ~ 67 m³ | Multi-train parallel pilot (e.g. MBBR vs SBR head-to-head) |
| 40′ High-Cube | 12.19 × 2.44 × 2.90 m | ~ 76 m³ | As 40′ with mezzanine for control room and spares store |
Honest View of What Goes Wrong
An empty 40′ container is around 4 t; fitted out as a pilot it can reach 12–15 t. Helicopter access is impossible; heavy crane needed for placement.
If the site cannot take a heavy crane, choose skid-mounted instead. We will tell you when a container is the wrong call.
A sealed steel box heats up fast in sun and cools fast in winter. Without active climate control, the trial fails on instrumentation drift.
Insulated wall and roof to U < 0.4 W/m²·K; thermostat-controlled HVAC (split unit) sized for the site ambient envelope; redundant temperature alarms to SCADA.
If a connection fails, the spill stays inside the container. Floor drainage is essential.
Stainless-steel bunded floor with sump and oil-water-sensing pump. Chemical stores located in dedicated bunded zones isolated from the process area.
A confined volume with chemical storage and electrical equipment is a fire-protection concern.
Fire detection (smoke + heat) with automatic shutdown of process pumps; CO₂ or Novec 1230 automatic suppression in the electrical cabinet; manual extinguisher inside the door.
A fully-fitted-out pilot container can apply 4–6 t per corner casting. Soft ground or undulating terrain causes door binding.
Pre-cast concrete foundation pads sized to the bearing pressure, or fabricated steel spreader plates. Levelling jacks at each corner casting.
A closed container hides the process from observers and trial visitors. Less useful for teaching or training than an open-frame build.
Internal viewing windows on every reactor; tablet-on-wall HMI showing real-time process schematic; periodic photo update from internal CCTV to the project file.
Common Configurations
40′ container with two parallel biological trains running on the same feed. The strongest possible evidence for a technology-selection decision.
20′ container with coag-floc + skid-mounted DAF cell + post-filter. Validates pretreatment kinetics ahead of downstream membrane procurement.
40′ HC container with full UF pretreatment + RO + remineralisation. Validates flux, recovery and fouling rate on the actual feed.
20′ container with UASB / EGSB pilot reactor and biogas measurement. Validates methane yield on the high-strength feed.
20′ container with nitrogen inerting, Ex-rated electricals and fixed gas detection. The only practical way to run a flammable-feed pilot.
40′ container with four parallel coagulant-dosing rigs comparing ferric, alum, PAC and proprietary blend on the same wastewater.
All five form factors.
Hub PageWhen access is harder.
Read MoreRoad-legal towable for fastest deployment.
Read MoreLightweight space-frame for visibility and reconfigurability.
Read MoreConstraints every remote pilot solves.
Read MoreSame container philosophy for permanent plant.
Read MoreAll containerised products in one place.
Read MoreContainer fit-out and FAT.
Read MoreTell us the duty, the site climate and the campaign window — we will scope a containerised pilot and estimate within two weeks.
Our expertise spans multiple industries with sector-specific water treatment solutions.